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Hello! Our names are Maddie and Silke, we are both 14 years old.

Last year we made a charity called 'Shoes4Change' that aims to provide shoes for those suffering in Angola.

Why Angola?We chose to support Angola because it is the 2nd poorest country in the world. After the crisis in Angola from 1974-1975, it has been home to thousands of new, life threatening diseases. Due to the lack of educational and health systems, Angola has not been able to recover from the war crisis resulting in over 500,000 deaths.

Why is it important to get shoes to Angola?Footwear in Africa is extremely important in order to reduce trauma, hookworm and parasitic diseases that enter the barefoot. Shoes protect your feet from germs which means going barefoot exposes the skin of your feet to refreshing air and sunshine, which inhibit microbial growth and infection. In Angola where the average temperature is 21 degrees and the streets are filled with bacteria, the risks of getting these diseases are a lot higher. As I mentioned that the health system is very limited in Angola and therefore only severe injury's get treated; shoes protect your feet from injury. Shoes enable support and security for your feet to be able to run and complete exercise safely.

Our aim: Our aim is to supply those who are in need of protection for their feet. We plan on doing this by collecting donated shoes which we will then spend time disinfecting the shoes from any diseases and bacteria. The shoes will be handed out to children aswell as adults in need. Before the donated shoes are delivered, with any remaining money we will purchase as many more shoes as we can to also deliver.

This summer (summer of 2017) we would love to travel to Angola to distribute the second-hand shoes that we have collected. However, our trip in total will cost £2800! We would love some help to fund our trip so please donate to support our charity. Thank you very much !